“It is forming a pattern only now,” added Pyrrhus. “Our attacker uses Adepts who cannot Read. First people with small powers, like the weather controllers. Lords Adept have strong shields against such influence.”
“The attacker is learning to get around them,” said Master Clement. “It must be implanted commands again, for surely no one can control an Adept exercising power.”
Lilith studied them. “You are saying that at some time when I was not using my powers… someone put in my mind a command such as ‘When you make camp near your border, you will fall asleep and cause cold weather’?”
Aradia nodded. “I fear that that is what happened.”
“But I live surrounded by Readers!”
“Either it was done by an Adept, unReadable while using his powers,” said Master Clement, “or else by a Reader out of his body. Then he could not be Read unless he touched another Reader’s mind.”
“I feel better,” Aradia said. “This is all within our own scope of power-simply unthinkable to us to use Adepts so. For a time I felt as if we were dealing with the Ghost King!”
“But who’s doing it, and where’s he hiding?” asked Wicket. “Every Reader’s been alert for weeks, and we still haven’t a clue.”
“Perhaps,” Master Clement said softly, “Aradia just gave us one.”
“I did? What?”
“The unthinkable. Aradia, may I have permission to Read your library?” asked the Master Reader.
“Of course. What do you expect to find there that isn’t in the Academy library?”
“Let me pursue it first,” he replied. “I am hoping to prove my suspicions wrong.”
“What if they prove right?” asked Pyrrhus, the hard edge back in his voice.
“Then,” replied Master Clement, “we will rely on what has always been our best skilclass="underline" dealing with new situations in new ways.”
Wicket looked at Pyrrhus with a grin. “I guess we fit right in then, don’t we?”
Julia remained silent, disdainful of the pitiful camaraderie. Whistling against the darkness.
“Since I am not an Adept,” Master Clement continued, “I would like a Lord Adept with me until we resolve this situation. Aradia, you also need protection. Lilith, stay with her. Pyrrhus- “
“I’m not a Lord Adept.”
“We don’t have tests, as Readers do,” said Aradia. “You will prove yourself in action soon, Pyrrhus. I have no doubt of it. Master Clement will be safe with you. Wicket-”
“I know. Pyrrhus doesn’t need me when he has Master Clement, so I’ll keep up our regular duties.”
A few days later, Julia found Pyrrhus alone in Master Clement’s outer office. He still went fully armed, she noticed, although Adepts did not normally wear even a sword.
“I’m afraid it’s Master Juna for you again,” Pyrrhus told her. “Clement is treating a child they brought in an hour ago, suffering from hallucinations. None of the other Masters could help him.”
It was the third day in a row that some emergency had kept Master Clement from his appointments with Julia, and it seemed recently that most lessons they did begin were interrupted. Master Juna would be ready for Julia in a few minutes. So she sat down and asked, “Pyrrhus, why did you first become partners with Wicket?”
“What?”
“After you saved his life, why did you team up with him? He couldn’t even read-I mean, he was illiterate.”
“Wicket’s a survivor,” Pyrrhus replied, as if that were sufficient explanation.
When he did not elaborate, Julia asked, “What do you mean?”
He studied her face, an odd look in his eyes. Then, with a smile that was more a grimace, he said, “Let me tell you something about revenge, Julia. It gives you a reason to stay alive, to stay healthy, to gain skills. But if that is all you live for, once you achieve it there is nothing left.
“After the fall of Tiberium-after Portia’s death- I had nothing left. I wasn’t a Reader anymore. I had no plans, and only one skill that did not depend on Reading. ” The smile became self-deprecating. “I had learned a hundred ways to kill someone with my hands, and then helped kill my target with my mind.
“When it was over, I had no idea what to do with myself, until I rescued Wicket. When you save someone’s life, you take responsibility for him. Did you know that?”
“It’s an Adept law,” Julia replied.
“Yes,” Pyrrhus murmured. “It doesn’t have to be taught, like the Readers’ Code. It just happens. So there I was, suddenly responsible for Wicket.” He grinned sardonically. “Until you gave him the confidence of his powers, Julia, that was a heavy responsibility. Wicket tends to attract trouble. Like it or not, I had something to live for again. Eventually we developed some plans together, and you know the rest.”
“Why do you stay partners with him now, though?” she asked. “He’s got a good job, and money. He doesn’t need you to take care of him anymore. And you’re a Lord Adept. “
His eyes narrowed. “Why do you stay with your friends?”
Julia shrugged. “Maybe I won’t, after I outgrow them.” Just then, Master Juna called her to her lesson, so she left with the feel of Pyrrhus’ eyes trying to pierce through to her meaning. But she was safe with Pyrrhus; he couldn’t Read.
Aradia hated her clumsiness, her constant fatigue, in the last days of her pregnancy. Lilith spent hours just sitting with her, talking of her own pregnancy, and of Ivorn as a baby, happy memories of a doting mother.
Aradia clung to hope. Although her powers were severely diminished, she was still able to Read-especially through a stronger Reader-and perform minor Adept functions. Her mother, she had been told, had lost everything.
No. She would not think about her mother, her madness. Aradia was not mad. Master Clement reassured her that strange dreams were nothing to fear.
Devasin came to tell Aradia and Lilith that Master Clement and Pyrrhus were there to see them. It was spring now; they met in the courtyard amid soft warm breezes and the fragrance of first blossoms.
“Aradia,” said Pyrrhus, “I had a very strange conversation with Julia today. It seemed almost as if she were trying to drive a wedge between Wicket and me.”
Aradia frowned. “I don’t understand. She’s been so… good, so caring, since Galerio died. As if with Lenardo and Wulfston missing, and then losing her friend, she had learned the value of close ties.”
Master Clement said, “I wonder if she is developing an unflattering snobbishness. Possibly because her association with minor Adepts got her into such a frightening situation.”
“I will talk to her,” said Aradia. “Now, have you turned up anything in your research, Master Clement?”
“I am not certain. We both have copies of Torio’s and Melissa’s reports of events in Madura.”
Aradia smiled. ‘“We all had the same thought. Lilith and I have studied them-but the cold we experienced could not be the cold white fire they told of. That was a life-devouring energy from the planes of existence, and uncontrolled it threatened to consume all life in Madura.”
“The cold created through me,” Lilith took it up, “simply disappeared the moment I stopped generating it.
It could not have been the same thing.”
“No,” said Master Clement. “And yet somehow what happened to Torio and Melissa seems to hold a clue, if I could only see it.”
“Torio and Melissa?” Pyrrhus asked.
“Four of our friends, Torio, Melissa, Zanos, and Astra, traveled north to Madura to look for Zanos’
family,” Aradia explained. “They found the land in possession of a sorcerer who tapped a source of destructive power.” She went on to tell how the sorcerer Maldek had allowed Melissa to die forcing that power back onto its own plane, and Torio had gone to rescue her from the plane of the dead.
“Melissa stayed in Madura,” she finished, “to… contain Maldek, as it were. We don’t know where Torio went; he was a Reader, but his Adept powers wakened in Madura.”
“What happened to Zanos and Astra?” Pyrrhus asked.